Spring is that magical season that blurs the lines between winter and summer. The season that delivers it all — metering it out through the three months from March to June. In the case of this trip: our guests were on an educational mountaineering adventure with their eye on bigger things very soon (Mt Rainier, 14,410′). The team was led by Redline Guide Glenn Van Neil. His words and photos follow…
Lets go climbing! Spring is in full swing here in the east. There’s no more ice to climb, resort ski hills have all closed, we’re onto rock climbing and hiking right? If you want to train for a big mountain (think Rainier), you have to head west now… right? There’s just no place left to play in the snow and practice mountaineering and glacier skills (but not our standard courses in this case), right?
Whoa, wait a second!
They said they wanted an introduction to some mountaineering skills in preparation for a Rainier climb that was fast approaching. They were concerned they couldn’t make the grade out there in the Pacific Northwest. We put them to the test! Crampons, ice axes, helmets, harnesses, and boots! Up into Tuckerman Ravine we headed for a mid-May snow adventure. A couple of hours of snow travel training, pied marche, pied canard, pied Français, then along came the Germans! International was next… you get the drill. These are all crampon techniques if you’re thinking I’ve gone mad. These guys were indeed strong climbers, we went up and down dozens of times in the steepening snow along the base of Tuckerman Ravine in preparation for a long gully climb up towards the summit of Mt Washington. They’re ready.
Lessons over and now the test. There are a few lines of snow left in Tuckerman, but most don’t go all the way up, it’s just been too warm with too much rain. Left Gully was the exception: the snow went all the way to the top with only a few rock obstacles along the way. We took a steep line, 50°? 55 in spots for sure. Both guests were strong climbers, they even took the lead at the top. We topped out and decided not to try for the summit which was easily 1.5 hours away.
The descent through the rocks was long, and almost harder than the climbing. There was very little snow on the trail and we hopped from rock to rock all the way back to Pinkham Notch. Twelve plus hours of hard work for sure, but happiness as a result. —Glenn
